Tools

Literary Criticism

What is literary criticism? How do I find it? Literary criticism is the evaluation, analysis, description, or interpretation of literary works. It is usually in the form of a critical essay, but in-depth book reviews can sometimes be considered literary criticism. Criticism may examine a particular literary work, or may look at an author's writings as a whole.

Finding literary criticism can be challenging. This pathfinder is designed to help anyone in researching sources of literary criticism.

On the Internet vs. At the Library
There are many good sources of literary criticism that are now available on the Web. However, there are lots of things that are not yet available electronically, or that require a subscription. Therefore, you will probably need to do some research at the library in your area in order to write a paper that requires literary criticism.

Different libraries have different sources. Your school or public library will have some good resources for literary criticism. If you can't find a particular title at your library, don't worry; just ask a librarian your question, and he or she can help you locate a similar resource.

Author Information
Want to read more about the author of the book you are researching, or the historical context in which it was written?

Yahoo's Literary Authors Listing
A large listing of sites about particular authors.
The following source is published by the Gale Group. There are also hundreds of other books which have similar collections of author biographies. Ask your librarian to help you find one that includes your author.

Literature Resource Center* available with a valid Springfield-Greene County Library card
Provides a wealth of information that offers literary criticism, biographies, work overviews, periodical articles, web sites and more.

Library Catalog Try a subject search under the author's name (remember to enter the information last name, first name) Many books have been written analyzing literary works.

Criticism & Summaries
Looking for some representative criticism on an author or book? Want a plot summary and character list for Crime and Punishment?

Literary Criticism Collection
This IPL collection provides links to online sources of biography, bibliography, and criticism about major authors and works written worldwide. The most comprehensive coverage is in American and British authors. As mentioned in the Author Information section above, this collection has developed some technical problems. However, it still holds valuable information. If the author or work you are interested in is not available, try the Online Literary Criticism Guide for other good places to start looking on the Web.

Finding Books
Looking for a book about your author, or a volume of critical essays about a literary work?

When searching for books in your library's online catalog, you can do a keyword search, but the best way to find good sources of information is to do a subject search. Subject searches look for the Library of Congress Subject Headings assigned to a particular book. These headings help you find books which are specifically about your topic.

In many online catalogs, you can simply do a subject search for your author's name, and then browse a list of headings which begin with that name. Good subject headings for literary criticism often include the words "criticism and interpretation." Another way to find a good subject heading is to look in the red LCSH books, which your librarian can help you find and use. Look for your author's last name, and then browse for useful headings.

Finding Articles
Need some critical articles about an author or book? Want to find a book review?
Articles published in newspapers, popular magazines, or scholarly journals are listed in a variety of different periodical indexes. A periodical is simply a publication that is produced a particular number of times a year: daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Periodical indexes may be available in online or print form.

These indexes contain citations and some fulltext to articles. A citation includes an article's title, author, page numbers, publication date, and the name of the periodical in which it was published. If you are using an online database you may find the fulltext of the article following the citation. Public libraries or high school libraries usually subscribe to a few periodical indexes, especially general indexes which include newspapers, magazines, and some scholarly journals. Ask your reference librarian which index will be most useful to you in your research. Our databases allow you to search academic and popular journals and magazines, as well as newspapers all at the same time.